Holier Than Thou vs. Holier Than You

As we saw in my last post the latest round of revivalist expectancy is linked to the Bay of Holy Spirit movement, a movement that has prophesied revival in Norwich. This prophecy has now passed its sell by date, but expectancy of revival remains high amongst these revivalists.

One must first put this whole matter in perspective: The churches who have identified themselves with this latest “move of God” are just one of the many Christian splinters to be found in Norwich; in fact I don’t think of them as mainstream, if indeed such a thing as “mainstream” can be defined given that the normal state of Christian affairs is one of its eggs being distributed over many baskets.

Setting the scene for the purposes of this post, however, is this article on the ecumenical Christian web site Network Norwich and Norfolk. Posted toward the end of 2010 it gave me my first alert that a new prophecy pertaining to Norwich was in the offing. The article attracted the comments from a critic called “Way Truth Life Seeker” who is attached to yet another of Norwich’s many Christian splinter groups; but more about that later. 

What I want to look at here is the response of a certain “Brent Lewis” to Truth Seeker’s challenge. Lewis has obviously sold out to the Bay of Holy Spirit movement. However, compared to Truth Seeker’s robust and closely argued challenge Lewis’s response in terms of facts and reason is remarkably light. But assembling facts and reason are really not his forte; instead he prefers to spiritually intimidate his critic. Below I reproduce Brent Lewis’s final response and I have embedded it with my own commentary. As you will see it is weak on reason and fact but very strong on its attempt to apply spiritual duress. I must say that in my experience Lewis’s spiritual put downs are not peculiar to him; they are common amongst those in his Christian subculture and the ethos and clichés he expresses can be found in the teaching of the leaders who promote God’s latest “new thing”. To be fair Lewis is just re-expressing what he has been taught. 

Dear Way Truth Life Seeker, I appreciate your honesty and frankness however I don’t think we’re going to agree on the issue of Divine healing. I’ve attended many revival meetings in different countries and witnessed numerous miracles, why would we want evidence and documentation; the evidence is right in front of my eyes; that by the Lords all sufficient love and Grace- He sets people free, delivers them, heals them and makes them whole. 

My Comment: As we know, and as the existence of sleight of hand “magic” confirms, evidence that is right in front of the eyes can be notoriously unreliable, especially if it comes out of the heady and emotional context of revivalist rallies; in such a context seeing isn’t believing. Apart from clear physical impairments such as amputated limbs, most human disabilities have causes and symptoms that are invisible and therefore claimed healings are by large claims about things you don’t readily see. Moreover, crowds, particularly gullible, uncritical, and emotional crowds, are easy to manipulate. If we waiver demands for documentation it would become a free-for-all for every religious charlatan between here and Salt Lake City. Genuine healers will not to be frightened of demands for documentation. 

You seem like a doubting Thomas even wanting a sign, but the Lord said in the synoptic Gospels that no sign shall be given.

My Comment: The reference to “No sign shall be given” comes from Mat 12:39 (et similia) where we find Jesus confronting not a disciple but His sworn enemies, the hypocritical religious leaders of the day: Lewis subtle, or perhaps not so subtle, insinuation is that Truth Seeker is comparable to Christ’s worst enemies! But the great irony here is that Mat 12:39ff tells us that a sign will be given, namely, the story of Jonah, a story that is being used here as a metaphor for Christ and His resurrection. We see this metaphor actually fulfilled in the very story of doubting Thomas who received the best sign of all, the living Christ Himself. Lewis, in mixing up the stories of doubting Thomas and the Pharisees, has clearly screwed up his comparisons! 

The cack-handed insinuation and sense of threat gets even stronger in the next passage: 

We as believers have to be very careful when we speak about the miracles infused by the power of the Holy Spirit, in Mathew chapter 12 we see the Lord working many miracles and the Pharisees are mocking the Lord and even saying : This one does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons, but the Lord rebuked them and said Therefore I say to you, All kinds of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. 

My Comment: Lewis is now upping the ante with an innuendo about the unforgivable sin; (See Mat 12:30ff; looking at the context we see that once again Jesus’s antagonists are the Pharisees, and not disciples) My interpretation of this piece of spiritual bullying by Lewis is this: “If you challenge the Bay of Holy Spirit movement it may not just classify as an ordinary sin; instead you should beware of committing the unforgivable sin”. This kind of language has been used before against those who were opposed to the Toronto blessing – See here. So, having well and truly sunk his fangs into Truth Seeker with this allusion to the unforgivable sin Brent Lewis now dribbles out some concentrated spiritual venom: 

The scribes and the Pharisees were eyewitnesses of the miraculous healing of the mute and blind man. They saw the demon cast out of the man, and they knew it was only the power of the Holy Spirit who could do miracles such as these. Their accusations toward Jesus revealed the attitude they harbored within… envy, jealousy, bitterness, hatred and strife. Instead of rejoicing because this child of Israel was healed and restored, they began to be enraged with and set themselves “violently against” Jesus. This was not merely an outburst of anger on the part of the scribes and Pharisees, but rather, the outward manifestation of their greed and selfish and wicked ways. By plotting against the man of God, they begin their journey down the road to blasphemy (vilification) of the Spirit of God, it’s the same situation today with many dear ones touched, healed and delivered by Spirit of the risen Christ yet onlookers just shun and shake their heads not realizing their blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

My Comment: The intimidating anti-superlatives are coming in thick and fast here; “they knew it was the power of the Holy Spirit”, “accusing Jesus”, “envy”, “jealousy”, “bitterness”, “hatred”, “strife”, “violently against Jesus”, “greed”, “selfishness”, “wicked ways”, “plotting against the man of God”, “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” all packed into a short paragraph. If poor old Truth Seeker doesn’t want to “begin his journey down the road to blasphemy” what should he do? Here’s Brent Lewis’s advice: 

At the end of the day we have to have empty ourselves of all the teaching, doctrines and theology we think we know and stop confining the Lord to the letter and get afresh vision of the Lord moving across the earth. One of the attributes of love is that it believes all things, and rather than Christians arguing what is or isn’t a miracle they need to work together get out on the highways and byways, exercise the gifts that the Lord has given them so the Lord can complete his work on earth and come back and establish His kingdom. Come Lord Jesus! Amen.

My Comment: The foregoing, in my experience, typifies the ethos and doctrines doing the rounds in these authoritarian revivalist Christian subcultures: Empty your head, suspend your critical faculties and just believe all that’s on offer, for to do otherwise is neither loving nor the way of Christ. I’m reminded here of a cassette I listened to in the mid-1990s where a certain Ellie Mumford, a promoter of the Toronto Blessing, exalted her listeners not to analyze this blessing but to just accept it. Neither Lewis nor Mumford can see their double standard: They would not, of course, empty their heads of all those doctrines which teach an uncritical acceptance of what is loudly billed as the latest move of God. This emptying of one’s self of all reason and knowledge, especially when faced with superior articulation, is what I refer to as the gnostic escape from reason; basically it’s saying “Damn your arguments; I’m enlightened and you’re not!”. It’s usual the stand-off between reason and intuition, knowledge and feelings that takes place when logos and mythos fail to come to terms.

*** 

One question remains here: Who is this "Truth Seeker"? That is a long story: I spent nearly three years corresponding with him by email. He is a follower of Witness Lee’s teachings. These teachings are promulgated by “Living Stream Ministries” who have an administrative and teaching centre at Anaheim, USA. He was much more willing to engage the Bible and reason than the self-confessed empty-head, Brent Lewis. But we find that Truth Seeker, like Lewis, has also backed himself into a corner as a consequence of an all-out-commitment to just one of those many baskets of eggs. Lewis and Truth Seeker are both very pious Christians capable of some ostentatious displays of devotional language: That’s another way of saying that they are both spiritual hot-heads, “on fire for the Lord”. Their meeting is a match of the irresistible force and the immoveable object. They both have complete confidence that the Christian subculture to which they have attached themselves is where everyone should be at spiritually; if you are going to believe this sort of thing then you are going to believe that Christians who are not with you are prime fodder for proselytizing. This is the logic that brings Truth Seeker and Lewis to similar conclusions: Viz: “If you are not with us you must be against us and if you are against us you are against God”. Truth Seeker, when I pressed him, also resorted to bluster and the gnostic back-stop against reasoned argument; he was “in the Spirit” and I, of course, was not; his thoughts were spirit lead and mine were “soulish”. Furthermore, like many who have backed themselves into a corner, he could also be pretty threatening; and the best way to threaten a fellow Christian is to attempt to call into question and destabilize that which is most precious to them; none other than their faith*. The idea is that the target will then attempt to re-stabilize their faith by selling out to what the proselytizer will hype as the latest move of God, a move not to be missed. 

 Perhaps I will tell the story of “Truth Seeker” another day. 

 * Footnote: At one point in the NN&N thread Lewis even goes as far as questioning whether the moderate and reasonable evangelical Hank Hanegraaff is a true believer.

Postscript
Lewis and Truth Seeker find it difficult to accept that authentic shows of high piety are possible outside their own Christian subculture. Their strong and exclusive identification with their respective sub cultures has, as I have said above, had the effect of backing them into a corner and given them little room to manoeuvre. Therefore when they are faced with another's spiritual ostentation and vehment conviction they have given themselves few choices: Rather than seeing one another as just displaying bog standard human foibles and conceits, they see something far more malign: As we have seen Lewis is edging towards accusing Truth Seeker of committing the unforgivable sin. Truth Seeker in turn, as my experience with him suggests, is likely to think of Lewis as being a captive in spiritual Babylon.

Prophecies: Stack’em high, Sell’em Cheap and Sell’em Short.

Some prophecies are running out of time

This blog post was triggered by an article in the April issue of “Christianity” magazine entitled “Hungry for Revival”. In the words of the article:

Some have prophesied that 2012 could be a significant spiritual time for the church and interest in revival among some leaders is growing…… An increasing number of churches are expectant.

After a summit of revivalist leaders in September 2011, during which there was “a special sense of the presence of God”, one of these leaders is quoted as saying:

“There’s something about September 1^st, I believe you can write it down. I believe you can write it in your journal, that ‘everything changed September 1^st 2011’. I feel like it’s a prophetic word over this country (the UK) – September 1^st 2011 – everything’s different”

That statement is gloriously ambiguous! And yet it is apparently regarded as a “prophecy”; the article goes on to say that those close to this particular leader tell us “It is very rare that he would give this kind of prophecy”.  As we will see this kind of prophecy from this kind of leader is far from rare. One must remember that in the Christian subculture this prophecy is coming from, leaders are apt to be raised to the status of quasi holy men and therefore merely setting a question against their teachings is often felt to be  an affront, perhaps even tantamount to questioning the Holy Spirit Himself. Therefore the followers of this particular holy man will be taking his words very seriously indeed and very ready to defend him.

The above prophecy is still, I suppose, relatively fresh and its ambiguity gives it a fuzzy sell by date. Going back in time a bit further we can find recent prophetic utterances that are still part of this latest round of revivalist expectancy but are now, however, past their sell-by-date.  If you look at the video promoted here and here you will find Bay of the Holy Spirit revivalists  Nathan Morris  and John Kilpatrick prophesying about revival in Norwich.  This is what we hear:

 I believe in the next eighteen months city wide revivals will break out…. In the end of 2010  into 2011 we are going to see an outbreak of revivals across the nations of the world. I believe the Lord said to me I’m going to raise up cities of refuge, places of out pouring…

I speak to Norwich in the UK. Norwich!  Be awakened by the fire of the Holy Ghost!

God is beginning to do something there…just an outpouring in Norwich UK. I believe that this word we preached tonight is coming to Norwich UK…. Shout fire right now…Norwich in the name Jesus be awakened right now.

But do you know what, in the days to come there is going to be so many cities on fire for God, especially beginning in 2011…I believe the Holy Spirit right now is softening cities and churches ready. It’s not going to be a church wide revival; it’s going to be city wide revivals. God’s going to shake cities

Those prophetic words really do seem to be past their sell by date; the end of 2010 into 2011 is over a year ago and nothing has happened in Norwich: Although no date is actually given for revival in Norwich the prophecies pertaining to Norwich were provided very much in the context of the 2010 into 2011 time frame.

***

Dubious prophetic utterances and an excited expectancy amongst the followers of the Christian holy men, need I say, are no new phenomena; there has always been a demand  to up the ante with the latest “new thing” God is doing. The Jehovah’s witnesses were into a similar dynamic with their 1975 expectancy. In fact as a result of this latest spate of prophecies I decided to travel back in time by browsing my stock of Christianity magazines, a stock which goes back to 1980, right back to the days when “Christianity” was actually called “Buzz”.  This is what I found.

The year is 1987. The January edition of Buzz carries an article entitled “Are the Horseman in the Saddle?” (Referring, of course, to the four horseman of the apocalypse) The article tells us about a certain Clifford Hill, a pastor of a London East End church who “called a group of 153 Christians with a prophetic gift to Mount Carmel in Israel”. Over to Hill and the Mount Carmel prophets:

We are very near to the point of disaster in our nation. The present world situation is so serious that the very existence of mankind is under threat. There will be tremendous destruction, even nuclear war, unless the nations turn from the path they are taking now and turn back to God….. I see three things coming in the not too distant future in our nation. One is economic collapse, the second is political uncertainty and the third is trials on a scale unknown before in our nation…. I believe I’m hearing from God….

It will not be long before there will come upon this world a time of unparalled upheaval and turmoil. Do not fear for it is I the Lord who am shaking all things. I began this shaking with the first World War and I greatly increased it through the second World War. Since 1973 I have given it an even greater impetus. In the last stage I plan to complete it with the shaking of the Universe itself with signs in sun and moon and stars.

Let us now go forward to the April of that year. Here we find an article entited “Revival”.  It starts:

A great tidal wave of revival is heading toward Britain – a new wave of God’s spirit sweeping across the nation and winning souls for Christ. Such is the vision of revival received by evangelist Nancy Goudie a member of the gospel rock band Heartbeat….. “As the Spirit of God has been moving through the Church it’s as if he’s put the word ‘revival’ on the lips and hearts of his people” say Heartbeat. And a good many Christians agree with them.

The article goes on to quote other big names of the day who were expecting a British revival; Selwyn Hughes, evangelist James Robinson, pastor Paul Yonggi, evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, and restorationist Arthur Wallis. Flamboyant pastor Gerald Coates is also quoted as saying the tide has turned.

One must recall that the above are simply the Woolworth’s prophecies that have come my way - if one starts looking for them one finds them to be as common as beetles – for example in 1995 Gerald Coates predicted  that  within 18 months Westminster chapel was going to be at the heart of Revival.  Here I list a few other Woolworth’s prophecies that I’m aware of.

People love to have something exciting on the horizon; it gives them something to work for, hope for and fuels their dreams, and those Christians whose hopes have been inappropriately raised have my sympathy. However, one might find that the sympathy only goes one way. When prophets and their prophecies are questioned their followers can get quite threatening.  As William Irwin Thompson has remarked about the zealous excesses of the followers of eastern gurus (and I think you will find that the principles here apply as much to Christian gurus):

We do not need a new civic religion of the world state run by Initiates of Kundalini Yoga; we need to protect spirituality from religion in a secular culture of law in which devotees are protected from the zealous excesses of one another. It is utterly naïve to think that in the near future men will have outgrown the playpen of the American Constitution and will lovingly trust one another. The gurus are tolerant and merely condescending now because they have no political power; but even without power they show full evidence of human frailty and vanity and tend to think that their own yoga is bigger and better than the other guru’s. And what is often only a case of mild condescension in the guru becomes in the disciples a fever of zealotry.

Just how threatening the disciples of the latest clutch of Christian holy men can be we will see in a later post.